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Video Cloud Based Agriculture Extension For Global Poverty Alleviation
INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock. The profession includes horticulture, floriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and allied works. Agriculture includes such forms of cultivation as hydroponics (growing of plants in a soil less medium, or an aquatic based environment) and aquaculture (farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other aquatic organisms). Both involve farming in water. Agriculture is the basis of human civilization on earth that started about 12,000 years ago. The earliest civilizations based on intensive agriculture arose near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia (now Iraq and Iran) and along the Nile River in Egypt. As the Romans expanded their empire, they wrote manuals about the farming techniques and adapted the best agricultural methods of the people they conquered, in Europe. The history of Agriculture in India dates to Indus Valley Civilization Era (4500 BCE) and even before that in some parts of Southern India (9000 BC). As the civilization and population grew, newer techniques were used for higher yield. Over time, improved farming tools of bone, stone, bronze, and iron along with storage methods were developed. The story of development of agricultural processes is a saga of development of human civilization. To name a few these were, development of irrigation system (Mesopotamia-5500BCE), open-field system of planting (medieval Europe-2000 years ago), horse-drawn seed drill (England-1674), crop rotation methods (USA-1860), fertilizer using nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (America and Europe- 19th century) and many more. Later, During the 1950s and 1960s, scientists developed new strains of high-yield wheat and rice resulting in increased yield known as green revolution. However, the new strains required chemical fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation. The knowledge of genetic engineering also led to the selective breeding process in both plants and animals. These genetically modified organisms (GMOs or GM foods) have opened new vistas such as transgenic plants that resist certain pesticides and herbicides allowing the use of toxic chemicals. Biotechnology has brought advances in animal husbandry. Many cattle are also given anabolic steroids, or growth hormones, to make them get bigger, faster. Agriculture sector employs over one billion people in the world which includes 60 percent of all child labourers – 129 million girls and boys 1. More than two-thirds of children are unpaid family members. Poverty is the principal driver of the high rate of child labour in agriculture. The average share of agriculture in world’s GDP is 12.09% as in 2015, with India on 17.46% and African countries like Ethiopia and Sudan about 39% 2. There are more than 570 million farms in the world with 85% less than 2 ha 3. More than 90% of farms are run by an individual or a family and rely primarily on family labour. A large portion of the world's agricultural land is occupied by family farms which produces about 80% of the world's food. Developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are the habitat of the most of the world’s farmers. These people with about one-acre land are subsistence farmers. Agricultural methods often vary widely around the region, depending on climate, terrain, traditions, and available technology. The countries also differ greatly in their systems of governance and economic management. However, most of them cultivate land as their ancestors did hundreds or even thousands of years ago. They do not use agricultural technology involving expensive chemicals or production methods. Farming requires an array of skills: farmers must know when to plant and harvest and what types of crops to rotate, understand soil types and their limitations, when to apply man-made or organic pesticides and fertilizers, and be able to harvest and market their produce profitably. Generally, the supply to marketing chain is long with lot of middle men who pocket a substantial profit leaving the farmer always poor. In developing countries, small farmers cannot afford the new technology and big business has taken over agriculture. Food production must keep pace with the population growth in the country. The problem is uneven distribution of food. There are countries in the world who have surplus food with low population. Contrary to this, there are countries with higher population rise, low literacy, absence of knowledge of new technology resulting in hunger and poverty. The number of hungry humans has reached the 1 billion mark in the world. According to estimates, small farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa can increase their crop yields in the next 20 years, translating into roughly 400 million people lifting themselves out of poverty 4. This is possible only if the farmers are provided sustained technology assisted knowledge, skill and aptitude along with monetary support from State and not the dole or credit waiver frequently resorted by Governments of the land. For full article, pl follow the link http://wdfindia.org/images/IJPUB1801136.pdf